Cindy and friends

Schwümmli

When I went out for my grocery shopping in the morning, I passed by Schwümmli’s flat door and could hear someone sobbing. The Schwümmli girl was still in tears. Poor thing.
I never call the Schwümmlis, but today I thought it might be more appropriate ringing Misses Schwümmli than knocking at the door to find out, if we might be of any help.
Around midday I rang them and Misses Schwümmli picked up the phone. “Anything ok with Betsy?”, I asked. She started describing, how little Betsy was standing in front of her, her eyes pretty red from crying so much, wearing a new pair of now sparkling mouse ears and clutching her mouse tail. “She is doing fine”, she said, ” slowly recovering from the accidently loss of her mouse tail yesterday. Unnoticed her baby sister had plucked her mouse tail of her in the morning before Betsy had left to her kindergarten party.

Arriving at the Kindergarten her best friend Mipsy had given her the once-over and had trumpeted out, that she wasn’t a real mouse with her stupid cup shirt and even not wearing a mouse tail.
Oh yes, children very often not mince their words. The party hadn’t started yet, but with these words the fun already was over for poor Betsy.
After two hours endless crying Misses Schwümmli got a call from Kindergarten to pick up her girl.

“We tried everything to cheer her up,” she said. “We sent Bruno, her big brother to get the most beautiful sparkling mouse ears the world have seen so far. But not until today she had looked at them. Now she is wearing them and she looks so beautiful with the sparkling all over the place. It seems that we are slowly out of the woods. I even might be able to do some shopping.” She gave thanks to me for asking and hang up.

When you think of a cleaning fairy coming along with her magic wand to clear off your messy home, you probably have a sweet tiny person with blond curly hair and a beautiful dress in mind, waving her wand around and the mess vanishes into thin air in a second. But there’s a problem with all the images we carry around with us everyday. Because real life differs in so many ways from our imagination.

Cindy is definitely a person, who can help to broaden your mind. So she did today in the morning, when she appeared in the kitchen in this outfit. I am no longer extremely surprised by what I see, but today I must admit, it took a while to take in all the details, which were presented by my amazing flatmate.
“Good morning Cindy, what are you up to today?”, I asked her trying to sound as normal as I could. “Why are you coming up with such a superflous question, Petra?”, she answered. “Just look at me and you should know, what’s going on.”
But that was the big point. I had no clue, what that jellyfish on her head would stand for, neither her tightfitting wetsuit made any sense to me. Cindy put down the bucket, the jellyfish wobbling around her head. It was still alive!!!
“Cindy, you better explain your mission, before you start”, I urged her. She tried to make herself comfortable on the chair and then raised her voice.
“Didn’t Carla girl ask for help for her spring cleaning? Didn’t she say, her house was a mess? Here I am, the spring cleaning session will start at 9 o ‘clock pacific time, I presume.”
“But we are here, Cindy, and Carla lives about 5000 miles west of us.” “Hmmmpff”, she slumped down as much as the wetsuit let her, nearly dropping her stick, where a second jellyfish dangled on top of it.
“I forgot about that”, she wailed near to tears, “and what now?” I had no idea. I still was riveted by the steadily moving tentacles around her head.
Suddenly she came back to live, straightening her body. Cindy looked around and announced: “If Carla girl doesn’t need my help, then our windows will be as clear as the ocean after being cleaned with this MAGIC JELLYFISH MOP I ordered online.” She waved her MAGIC JELLYFISH MOP wand around, splashing the smelly seawater all over the kitchenfloor.

I wish, I could stop her somehow. Maybe there is someone out there in need of a MAGIC JELLYFISH MOP?

How the Marathon idea came up

Where do I get my inspiration from?

This time it was quite easy. It all started in the H week of our online class “Y is for Yellow” the night before the HASPA MARATHON HAMBURG, which took place on Sunday the 17.04.2016. I was chatting with my wonderful art friend Eva about the Marathon and I think it was her who asked, if my flatmate Cindy would be on the track as well. We are a fantastic team, when it comes to making up stories. The Wundertüten(click here for the Episode) we invented together in 2015 were sent to all parts of the world. A big thank you to Eva.

What a wonderful idea to send Cindy on the Marathon! I love getting inspired by what happens around me. So this time I had to research just in front of my door, because the Marathon track is not far away from my home.

Cindy was a bit surprised. But she had no choice but to get out her running gear. That´s the destiny of an artist´s flatmate. In my first sketch I played with the running kit, she should wear. Short pants, long pants? Energy drinks on her belt? Headband? Too many option. Doesn´t she look horrible in the left sketch? What an awful hairdo!

In the next step, it was already clear, that Granny Schwümmli would be at the start as well. I loved her glasses and remembered her handbag adventure. So I equipped her with her handbag and her slippers, she had been wearing for other occasions.

First raw sketches followed by colored ones

It was pretty clear, that the two could´t just stand there. Granny was the first one to run. (She didn´t make it yet into color!)

I did some research on the Internet to get her running pose right. And I remembered one of Carlas assignments in her online Class “The year of the Fairy Tale”, where we were working on poses.

BTW: Don´t miss her “Fairy-Tale Summer” class, which starts June 21. It is one of my favorite classes. There are tons of fantastic assignments waiting for you.

Cindy running in the breezy morning air

I found Cindy’s outfit too pajama like. It gave a her a far too well behaved girlish look. So she had to change the next morning into a new more Cindylike running gear. I was glad about her new outfit, but don´t ask me, why I picked Pink for her.

Her running glasses were quite cool and she was happy with them. The morning temperatures were freezing. She must have been pretty cold just before the run in the startblock.

Poor Cindy!

She made it in 5:15. Exhausted but very happy she recovered during the next few days. What a wonderful opportunity for me to take out the pencils and report on her recovery.

Read in the next BEHIND THE SCENES post: How theCover page of the RUNNER`S DELIGHT took shape

May the adventure begin

I love posts and blogs, where artists take you behind the scenes, so you can get a glimpse of all the effort they put into their work of art. There are two blogs/websites I would like to mention here.

I am a fan of the blog.picturebookmakers.com, where illustrators and authors tell you the story behind the story. Reading their posts you understand very soon, that a book is not written and illustrated in 4 weeks time but that it needs a lot of energy, patience, willpower and perseverance to accomplish it.

My artfriend from the Netherlands Herma Starreveld has a beautiful blog, where she not only presents all her wonderful art but also talks about making art. You can find her website here www.studiomastarre.com.

Cindy back in 2014

I just finished my first series (four pieces of art) for Carla Sonheims fantastic online class Y is for Yellow . My flatmate Cindy has got fans from all around the world. And now the idea of making my first Cindy book manifests. This is a good moment to start talking about my workflow, how my stories evolve, where I get my inspiration from and how far the road is to publish my first Cindy book.

Long time I hesitated taking this step, but now I would like to invite you to accompany my struggles, kickbacks and progress I experience on my way to finish my project. There might be times, where I would like to hear your advice and opinion about this or that. And there might also be situations, where I could just need your encouraging and supportive words to move on.

I am still not sure, what should be in the book. Old stories? New stories? Less stories, more pictures? Maybe you like brainstorming with me? There are so many ideas I have in mind.

So here is my first question for you: What would you like to find in your copy of my Cindy book? Don´t hesitate to comment below and thanks for being part of the project.

Let´s get started. May the adventure begin.

Read in the next BEHIND THE SCENES post: How the Marathon idea came up

Cindy and Granny Schwümmli run the Haspa Marathon Hamburg two weeks ago.

Last week we had a reporter from the Runner’s Delight Magazine here for an interview. The lady was also interested in the pictures we took during the week after the marathon. She said, she could use them for the Collector’s Edition, they sell together with their magazine.

Today they sent us a preview of the title page. Amazing, what people are interested in. As soon as we can grab a copy of this issue, we will let you know. But maybe you are faster and find it at your local kiosk.